jimbo92107

The Yankees think they can develop Aaron Hicks into another Bernie Williams, and I'm not at all sure it won't happen. I'm sad to see Hick go, but he is more likely to blossom as a hitter in New York than here, much as David Ortiz needed to go to Boston to become Big Papi.

No big deal for an ace in 2016. The first big "all in" year could be 2017. If Berrios and Duffey pan out, then Ryan might go for a Cueto-type deal.

Loved the improvements in the 2015 Twins, but they're a long way from the overall quality of both teams I saw in the World Series. Still, a couple of years could make a huge difference, with power arms like Burdi and Reed coming up, more good starters on the way, and with Stewart and Garver as possible good catchers. Somewhere between 2017 and 2020, the Twins might be ready to make a serious run. They might even make the playoffs in 2016, but they can't take the Royals without a much better pitching staff.

Actually, there is a very important difference in the two swings. In Santana's 2014 swing, his hip pop comes just before the bat snaps through the zone, propelling the bat. In the 2015 version, his hip pop is simultaneous to the bat coming through the zone. If that swing is representative, then Santana's kinetic chain has been broken, removing power from the swing, which must surf a wave of force created from low to high. No rhythm in the 2015 swing. Also, his belt buckle (hip) isn't turned far enough, so his torso isn't transferring power to his swing. Belt buckle must turn all the way towards the pitcher, or slightly past that, to generate whip.

In the last 35 games of the season I noticed that Hicks was drifting away from the mechanics that gave him such a hot May. He started losing some of the jolt in his kick, and his bat cock started going away. I recommend getting back that jolty kick, cock that bat tighter, then in the batting cage play Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" at max volume. If that doesn't make you want to smash some balls, nothing will! Rally round the family... with a pocket full of shells!

Address pitching first if you want to win more games next season. Without looking for more rentals, the Twins right now have five guys that could close in on 200 innings apiece next year: Santana, Gibson, Duffey, May, and Berrios. Yeah, Berrios, not Hughes. It's sad, but Phil Hughes lost the zip on his heater, and he's just not starter material without it. The good news is, if they limit his innings as a middle reliever/spot starter, Hughes may be able to dominate again, for short stretches. In a unique coincidence, the same appears to be true for Ricky Nolasco and Mike Pelfrey. None of them can be relied upon to go 200 innings anymore, but all of them could provide excellent service as middle relievers and spot starters. That includes Tommy Milone, too. A short walk through would look like this. Santana goes 7, leaves a runner on in the 8th. Hughes steps in, stops the bleeding. Jepsen closes. Gibson goes 6, gives up 2. Nolasco does 2 innings, Jepsen closes. Duffey goes 7 shutout, Pelfrey pitches one, Jepsen. May goes 8 giving up 2. Jepsen. Berrios falters after 3, Milone takes over. Pelfrey for one. Jepsen. The team could do that all season long, with spot starts for Hughes, and maybe one or two for Milone. Even Nolasco could get a spot start if he's feeling really good. Hughes's fastball might uptick a couple mph, making him dominant again. Might even try Hughes at closer; he's got a closer's mentality already. Nolasco can hurt his ankle again, or not. On top of that bunch, you have Perkins and Jepsen platooning as closer/setup, and bring up a couple fire ballers like Burdi and Meyer to try their hand. The Twins won more games this year, but their starting rotation was a mess of injuries and inconsistency, other than Gibson. If Tyler Duffey hadn't shocked us with his cosmic curve ball experience, the old W/L record would not have been relatively impressive. I know how things stand with this organization, so no need to tell me I'm being "unrealistic." The starting ro will be Hughes, Santana, Gibson, maybe Duffey, maybe May, and then MAYBE they bring up Berrios after he starts off AAA with seven shutouts. Milone, I have no idea. All I'm saying is that they're already paying these guys whether they start, relieve, or sweep up the stadium after the game. The money is already spent, so now you piece together a way to get more wins, not stroke expensive egos.

Congratulations to Kyle Gibson on a good season. Should be interesting where he winds up among Twins pitchers in 2016. It's quite possible he will have the 3rd or 4th best record next season, with Santana coming back for a full year, Duffey looking much better than expected, Berrios coming up, and Trevor May back in the starting rotation. Will there be room for Phil Hughes? I still think the best option for the Twins would be to put all the young studs in the rotation, all the expensive vets in the pen, then swap them around as needed. A bullpen with Hughes, Nolasco, Milone and Pelfrey could provide 3 to 4 innings a game for a whole season, and with such strong backup, the young arms could afford to attack with little fear. Instead of worrying about a threadbare pitching staff, they'd be brimming with talent and endurance. I'd like that a lot better than what I saw this season.

Hicks, May, Escobar. All three improved their value greatly. Hicks was the happiest surprise. Next he needs to put more jolt in his kick, get that bat waggle whippier, and let the rear knee brush past the front knee on weight shift. Bang.

I agree with Loosey, Twins Daily does strike a good balance of regular stories and free-wheeling participation of anybody that wants to have a say. Many thanks to glunn, h2Oface and all the other moderators for running a fun and informative site. It really did make this Twins season more enjoyable!

Hey, maybe we'll see Max Kepler tomorrow!

Meanwhile, congratulations to the Minnesota Twins on a season of surprises. This could be a very good team next year.

Oh, I agree completely. Perkins may well look completely healthy next spring. However, if he's the everyday closer next season, he will break down before the All Star game, and then it'll be just like this again - limping through the rest of the season either hurt or ineffective. That's why the Twins must platoon him with Jepsen and get the heir apparent ready to step in, which I think will be Nick Burdi. Could be that Jepsen can take over as closer, but I assume he will need a break, too.

This is stupid. Jepsen should not have done that. If you just pulled a groin, you should NOT throw another pitch. Brave, but stupid.

Twins must have a plan for phasing out Perkins as closer. He can't pitch that much anymore. That back isn't ever going to fully recover, and it will always tend to get re-injured. First rule of bad backs. Platooning with Jepsen could be the answer, at least for next season. Start working in Nick Burdi when the kid's ready...

I do hope the Twins keep Kevin Jepsen. He's pretty good. Blew that catch, but usually good.

The mighty Sano... struck out.

I can't blame Molitor for using Perkins. Perk was the best arm in the pen before the two cortisone shots. Now, he just doesn't have snap on his pitches. He had a good run of several healthy years as a dominant closer. That run is now over. Bad timing, but that's mortality for you.

Just not enough reliable guys in the pen. Perk's reliable when he's healthy, but he's not. Too bad.

Okay, at least Molitor is pulling Perkins before a complete avalanche. One point for seeing it wasn't getting any better.

Amazing fact: Both these teams are tied after 5 1/2 innings. Both teams have a shortstop named Escobar, and yet their SS bats first, and ours bats 9th! Coincidence?

If you were going to get really creative, you could have hard-throwing guys from all over the Twins minor league system work on throwing low fastballs to Buxton. Good practice for everybody. Then see if Buxton can check his swing on selected pitches, to work on recognition. The fact that some hitters can do this indicates that there are cues to look for in every pitcher's delivery that tip off the pitch before it's too late to check. You're not going to see much hotter heat than Jake Reed, Nick Burdi, Alex Meyer, etc. Twins have several serious flame throwers that could feed fastballs all day to Buxton. Byron could even tell them when they're tipping their pitches. Both sides get sharper. Unfortunately, that's not how these teams appear to operate.

Ultimately it comes down to feeling like you can hit whatever a pitcher throws anywhere near the plate. Right now Byron Buxton whiffs way too much. I don't see any way around that problem other than many more thousands of reps in the cage, honing his pitch recognition, timing and mechanics. In games, the very first thing I'd do is work him on mashing first-pitch fastballs. Make it a little harder for pitchers to assume he's just going to stand there and watch the first heater go by. Thing is, Buxton still has to get better at barreling up the heaters in a wider zone, not just right down the middle. Pitchers have to fear throwing a first-pitch heater, or they'll just keep doing it because it's the easiest pitch to command. If Buxton can lay off the spinning stuff on that first pitch, it puts pressure on the pitcher to command a more difficult pitch on the first offering, which starts to get him more favorable counts. Of course, then Buxton has to be better at hitting off-speed stuff, so... Back to the batting cage.

Most frustrating for me was that Pelfrey's MO for a bad start is very clear. If his stuff isn't bending enough, they start hitting hard line drives right away. That's the rumble before the avalanche, but Molitor didn't seem to notice, or chose to ignore the rumble. Several Twins pitchers are subject to this form of collapse, but all of them stem from the same thing - lack of command. Pelfrey's craptavalanche comes from a lack of command, insufficient movement on his heater as he tries to bend it right and left, plus elevating it, plus pipelining it down the middle. This makes for a particularly explosive craptavalanche. Thing is, a good manager is supposed to have a weather eye for such things. We here saw it coming several batters before the big, stinky craptavalanche hit the scoreboard. Even after it hit, whom did Molitor bring in? JR Graham, perhaps the second most prone to a craptavalanche. Graham has the proverbial "electric stuff," but his command appears to vary inversely with the importance of the outing. You don't bring in JR Graham to stop a craptavalanche. Frankly, the Twins don't have a craptavalanche stopper in the pen. For that you need either an ace strikeout guy or a reliable sinker baller. A healthy Glenn Perkins could do it. But to prevent one, you have to yank Pelfrey early and have somebody like Trevor May ready to go. Then be ready to yank him early, and so on. No long leashes in this situation.

This is one of those seasons where individual awards seem particularly silly, almost like Torii Hunter's whimsical dance awards. So many different guys have contributed in various ways and at various times, any one of them decided games that could have eliminated the Twins from the late-season contention we're enjoying right now. That said, I like Eddie Rosario for team rookie of the year because he has provided such a steady, high level of competitiveness since the first day he stepped on the field. I see multiple All-Star games in his future. For MVP, I go with Torii Hunter for bringing together a team of such volatility and forming one positive spirit. For pitcher of the year I go with Kyle Gibson. He's been the closest thing to a rock of stability in an ever-changing starting rotation. He's an innings-eating horse, a great fielder, and he's developing into a consistent threat to shut down opponents for 7 innings or more.

Angular parallax! By moving to the left side of the pitching rubber, Ervin Santana minimized the hitter's perception of each pitch's visual sweep from Santana's right to his left. His release point is more centered, thus making it harder to perceive the trajectory of the ball relative to the plate, which makes it harder to judge speed and distance. With reduced visual cues, hitters are more easily fooled, as each pitch appears headed down the middle for a longer time. Who knew Neil Allen had such a solid grasp of astronomy? He made Ervin Santana into a star! ;-)